Telling Them Apart
by Cke1st
Summary: The main battle in the second movie might have turned out very differently if Drago had made one small, understandable mistake. Both Stoick and the Snowy Bewilderbeast would still be alive as a result, Drago Bludvist would have been completely humiliated, and Hiccup and Valka would have shared a good laugh together. One-off.


**Telling Them Apart**

_A/N  
>I'm still not happy about the apparent death of the Snowy Bewilderbeast in the second movie, because I like that dragon. I dealt with this issue first in a story called "Bewilderment," which postulates that the Snowy never actually got killed at all. This little story accomplishes the same thing by diverging from the movie, but in a way that isn't so improbable.<em>

**o**

The battle had begun, and it looked like the free dragons were winning. Drago Bludvist's forces were shooting nets and catapult stones as fast as they could, but most of the dragons simply dodged the projectiles. When the dragons fired back, they almost never missed. Drago's own dragons were much outnumbered. The human ships, anchored offshore, could contribute little to the battle. The ominous bubbling area in the water wasn't posing a threat, either. Attrition was reducing Drago's force much faster than the dragons' force. Valka, who was within shouting distance of Drago, couldn't help gloating.

"With the Alpha controlling the dragons, you don't have a chance!" she shouted.

"Then it's a good thing I brought a challenger!" the dark man bellowed back. He turned back toward the bubbling waters and roared. The bubbling turned to turbulence, then to whitewater… and then _it_ burst out.

It looked much like the Alpha, but was dirtier in appearance. Its tusks were bound with wide iron bands, with great chains attached. It was just as huge and intimidating as the Alpha, and it looked a lot angrier. It leaped out of the icy waters with a roar, fixed its eyes on the Alpha, and charged.

Then it stopped.

The Alpha narrowed his eyes, braced himself to receive the impact of that charge… and then he relaxed.

He let out a low rumble, so deep and heavy that everyone on the ground could feel it through the air. The newcomer let out an answering rumble, and the two of them looked each other over.

Drago was beside himself. "Fight!" he screamed at his enormous dragon, waving his bullhook. "_Fight!_ What's _wrong_ with you?"

Stoick, who had run to help Valka in her fight against Drago, stopped at her side. "What's going on?" he demanded. "Do those two dragons know each other?"

For a moment, there was silence on the battlefield, except for those low rumbles. Then they all heard another sound, a much quieter sound. It was the sound of a woman laughing. After a few seconds, her laughter was joined by the laughter of a young man and the baritone chuckle of a Night Fury. Toothless landed lightly beside Valka, and Hiccup slid off his back. Mother and son could barely stand, they were laughing so hard.

"Will someone tell me what's going on here?" Stoick demanded.

"Dad…" Hiccup said, trying hard to be serious for a moment. "Behold the big-time dragon expert!" He pointed at Drago and broke off snickering. Drago didn't know whom to glare at – Hiccup or his Bewilderbeast.

"Have you done something to my dragon?" he snarled.

"You just don't get it!" Hiccup howled. "You've trained them, you've intimidated them, you've commanded them, you think you know everything about them… but apparently, you can't tell a male from a female!"

"What?" Drago bellowed.

"You didn't bring the Alpha a challenger!" Valka laughed. "You brought him a _mate!_" The two enormous dragons were rubbing their tusks together in what could only be a sign of affection. Stoick finally got it, and burst out in a bellow of laughter of his own.

"NO-O-O!" the dark man screamed at the dragon. "You have tusks! I thought you were a male! _FIGHT!_" But the muddy Bewilderbeast had no intention of fighting the first male of her species she'd ever seen. As for the Snowy, he hadn't seen a female of his kind in over two hundred years. There would be no charging or head-butting with this pair.

Without his biggest dragon, Drago had no back-up plan for winning the battle. Hiccup and Valka, on Toothless and Cloudjumper, led the free dragons to victory in less than half an hour. The imprisoned dragons switched sides as soon as they saw the free dragons gaining the upper hand, and that was the final nail in the coffin for Drago's dreams of conquest. The battle was over.

Stoick and his family, with the other young dragon-riders, supervised the clean-up. Eret son of Eret, who had changed sides before the battle began, was put to work removing the imprisoning iron plates from the dragons who were forced to wear them. Their gratitude touched him in a way he wasn't accustomed to. Soon, he was actually enjoying freeing the dragons he'd once helped capture. The other men who survived the battle were rounded up, tied up, and led away to their ships.

"What should we do with them?" Stoick wondered. "Berk isn't big enough to hold them all, and if we take them to the Council of Chiefs, they'll probably be set free as heroes for fighting against the dragons."

"The best thing I can think of," Hiccup said slowly, "would be to destroy all their weapons, remove anything from the ships that's of any value, and then turn them loose. Without weapons and without their leader, they won't be a threat to anyone, and without valuables, they can't buy more weapons. They'll have to find some place to settle down and earn a living, or they'll starve."

"What about that leader, though, Hiccup?" Valka asked nervously. "What should we do with Drago?"

"Him, we turn over to the Council," Stoick said decisively. "Most of those chiefs are the sons of the men he killed with his dragons. I think their idea of justice will be very interesting."

Valka threw her arms around him. "I'm just glad this is over. I had a terrible feeling that one of us might not have survived if this battle went on much longer."

Hiccup glanced up at the two Bewilderbeasts, who were oblivious to everything going on around them. After a minute, they both dove into the water, raising great waves that rocked the ships, and disappeared.

"So the king found himself a queen," he said sardonically.

"He's probably showing off his nest to her, to show that he's a worthy mate," Valka added. "A breeding pair of Bewilderbeasts – now _that_ is good news!"

They were distracted as the cause of all of today's problems was brought before them in chains. "You'll never defeat me!" Drago shouted. "Today was just a setback. I'll always find a way to come back, and I will _destroy_ you!"

"This time, I don't think so," Eret called after him.

"I'm the only one who's fit to rule the Vikings, Stoick!" Drago went on. "_You_ don't deserve to rule _anything!_ You don't deserve to be chief over a tribe! You don't even deserve that wife you've got! I think she's more of a warrior than you are! Maybe she should be the chief instead of you!"

Stoick bristled. After a twenty-year separation from his wife, the _last_ thing he wanted to hear was insults about his marriage! Valka was none too pleased, either. They both began to advance on the prisoner with fire in their eyes. But Hiccup smiled and held up his hand, a signal for them to back off.

"Mom, Dad, don't pay his comments any mind. He's no expert on marriage. After all, he can't even tell a male from a female!"

_The End_


End file.
